June 2017 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

June 2016 was the biggest month in comics in 20+ years, thanks to Rebirth and Civil War II — and that fact, plus the absence of a fifth shipping week, led to a pretty brutal comparison for June 2017. Marvel finished the first half of 2017 off $17.8 million at full retail versus its performance in the same period in 2016, accounting for 94% of the market's $19 million shortfall. As that would suggest, the market minus Marvel turned slightly negative for the half-year in June as well.

The individual weeks in June were the strongest of the year to that point, however; $46.09 million divides to $11.52 million per shipping week, the highest total since October. The second quarter beat the first quarter by 7.84% — as it should in any kind of normal situation — and 2017's new comics units during the first half, though infused with overship and 25-cent Image copies, were up from the year-to-date in 2016 by 2.56%. Graphic novels continued to underperform.

June produced a new most-ordered comic book of the year: Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, out in advance of the Spider-Man: Homecoming film, which would go on to a successful July debut. The issue also had a variant in the Marvel Collector Corps box.

An important mark was crossed, for better or worse, in June: the average comic book offered in the Top 300 topped $4 for the first time, landing at $4.03 and setting a new record. Removing the Dark Knight III Master Race #9 Collector's Edition, at $12.99, subtracts only two cents from the total; the median cover price offered was $3.99. Previously, the weighted comics average — all Top 300 comics dollars divided by units — had crossed the $4 mark several times, only to return; the weighted average in June was actually the lower of the two measures, at $4.01.

June's performance puts 2017 behind 2016's pace at this point, but the market has recovered in past years from slow starts. The comics market only gets about 48% of its annual business in the first half of the year; the second half is increasingly where the action is. Click to read our 2016 end-of-year report.

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each issue on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

June 2017 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

#1

#2

#3

#4

Graphic novel sales continued to be extremely weak in June, off 30% in total units for the month. Graphic novel orders during the first half of the year were off more than 21% versus the same period during the previous year.

(-16% vs. same month previous year)(+1% vs. same month 5 years earlier)(+3% vs. same month 10 years earlier)(+20% vs. same month 15 years earlier)(-10% vs. same month 20 years earlier)

Category to date for year:40.76 million copies(+2% vs. previous year)

All comics sold by Diamond (in units)7.82 million copies(-20% vs. same month previous year)

Year to date46.1 million copies(+3% vs. previous year)

COMICS DOLLAR SALES

The Top 300 Comics sold had a total retail price of$28.57 million

(-16% vs. same month previous year)(+15% vs. same month 5 years earlier)(+29% vs. same month 10 years earlier)(+70% vs. same month 15 years earlier)(+51% vs. same month 20 years earlier)

Category to date for year:$156.71 million(-2% vs. previous year)

All comics sold by Diamond (in dollars)(-18% vs. same month previous year)

Year to date(-4% vs. previous year)

GRAPHIC NOVEL DOLLAR SALES

The Top 300 Graphic Novels sold had a total retail price of$7.03 million

(-26% vs. same month previous year)(-6% vs. same month 5 years earlier)(-14% vs. same month 10 years earlier, comparing just the Top 100 vs. Top 100)(-13% vs. same month 15 years earlier, comparing just the Top 50 vs. the Top 50)

Category to date for year:$44.98 million(-9% vs. previous year)

All graphic novels sold by Diamond (in dollars)(-28% vs. same month previous year)

Year to date(-13% vs. previous year)

COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVEL DOLLAR SALES

The Top 300 Comics and Top 300 Graphic Novels sold had a combined total retail price of$35.6 million

(-18% vs. same month previous year)(+1% vs. same month 5 years earlier)(+6% vs. same month 10 years earlier, comparing just the Top 100 GNs vs. Top 100 GNs)(+70% vs. same month 15 years earlier, comparing just the Top 50 GNs vs. the Top 50 GNs)

Category to date for year:$201.3 million(-3% vs. previous year)

All comics and graphic novels sold by Diamond (in dollars)(-21% vs. same month previous year)

Note: This category diverges slightly from Diamond's reported measures for all comics and graphic novels. Slight differences are introduced by the presence of magazines and other factors.

Average cost of comics in the Top 300:$4.03

Average cost of comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders:$4.01

Average cost of comics in the Top 25:$4.03

Median cost of comics in the Top 300:$3.99

Most common cost of comics in the Top 300:$3.99

MARKET SHARES

Share of Overall Units

Marvel

42.82%

DC

31.76%

Image

9.00%

IDW

3.18%

Dark Horse

2.47%

Dynamite

2.07%

Boom

1.61%

Valiant

0.82%

Titan

0.76%

Aftershock

0.74%

Archie

0.67%

Oni

0.59%

Viz

0.36%

Action Lab

0.26%

Black Mask

0.25%

Avatar

0.19%

Random House

0.14%

Fantagraphics

0.09%

St. Martins

0.08%

Hachette

0.08%

Other

2.05%

Share of Overall Dollars

Marvel

38.54%

DC

30.61%

Image

8.86%

IDW

4.24%

Dark Horse

3.46%

Boom

1.83%

Dynamite

1.79%

Titan

1.02%

Viz

1.01%

Oni

0.79%

Archie

0.78%

Valiant

0.78%

Aftershock

0.72%

Random House

0.53%

Fantagraphics

0.38%

Avatar

0.38%

Action Lab

0.30%

St. Martins

0.28%

Hachette

0.28%

Black Mask

0.28%

Other

3.12%

Items in Top 300

Marvel

99

DC

82

Image

40

IDW

22

Dark Horse

13

Dynamite

12

Boom

8

Valiant

6

Archie

5

Aftershock

3

Oni

3

Titan

2

Udon

2

Action Lab

1

Black Mask

1

Joe Books

1

Share of Units in Top 300

Marvel

46.30%

DC

35.38%

Image

8.34%

IDW

2.33%

Dark Horse

1.76%

Dynamite

1.72%

Boom

1.05%

Valiant

0.92%

Archie

0.66%

Aftershock

0.63%

Oni

0.36%

Udon

0.17%

Titan

0.16%

Action Lab

0.08%

Black Mask

0.08%

Joe Books

0.07%

Share of Dollars in Top 300

Marvel

48.10%

DC

34.01%

Image

7.82%

IDW

2.45%

Dark Horse

1.77%

Dynamite

1.56%

Boom

1.05%

Valiant

0.91%

Archie

0.74%

Aftershock

0.63%

Oni

0.35%

Titan

0.19%

Udon

0.16%

Action Lab

0.10%

Black Mask

0.08%

Joe Books

0.07%

Dollar Share of Top 300 Comics & Top 300 TPBs

Marvel

46.88%

DC

33.52%

Image

8.40%

IDW

2.80%

Dark Horse

2.37%

Dynamite

1.34%

Boom

1.02%

Valiant

0.82%

Archie

0.69%

Aftershock

0.53%

Oni

0.43%

Titan

0.28%

Viz

0.26%

Udon

0.13%

Fantagraphics

0.10%

Black Mask

0.10%

Action Lab

0.08%

Joe Books

0.05%

Random House

0.05%

Cinebook

0.04%

Bongo

0.04%

Benitez

0.03%

Adhouse

0.03%

Hachette

0.02%

New comics released

Marvel

101

DC

84

Image

55

IDW

51

Boom

23

Dynamite

23

Dark Horse

22

Titan

15

Oni

12

Other

116

TOTAL

502

New graphic novels released

Marvel

39

DC

36

Viz

22

Dark Horse

20

IDW

17

Image

15

Titan

14

Boom

9

Oni

6

Dynamite

2

Other

142

TOTAL

322

THE FINE PRINT

The monthly sales estimates at right are for items shipped by Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic-book distributor in North America.

Diamond does not publish sales figures; instead it publishes "indexed" sales tables, in which it keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to a single comic book (usually Batman), with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders.

Along with other methods, we use the actual Diamond final orders from titles to approximate what an order index point equals each month.The result is applied to the Diamond charts to produce the estimates seen at right.

The figures represent only those comics and graphic novels that Diamond shipped to North American retailers in the calendar month. While Diamond's sales represent the majority of periodicals in circulation, they are a smaller portion of the overall graphic novel market.

An item may appear in more than one month's charts due to reorders; for a better idea of a comic book's overall sales, look for its end-of-year sales in the Year Overview section, where available.

Comichron is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Clicking on links to various merchants on this site and making a purchase can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.